1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical fasteners and, more specifically, to tissue fastening systems having polymeric staples and methods for joining tissue with polymeric staples.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Surgical staples and stapling instruments are well known in the surgical arts and have become an important part of many surgical procedures. The use of stapling instruments for applying staples to join tissue or tissue segments in a fast and efficient manner has obviated the time consuming step of manual suturing of tissue or tissue segments in a variety of surgical procedures, e.g., anastomoses procedures. The reduced time required to perform these surgical procedures using surgical stapling instruments has resulted in reduced trauma and risk to patients.
Usually, surgical staples are made of a metal that is bio-compatible, but not bio-absorbable. The metal staples, therefore, must eventually be removed by another device such as a staple extractor, which is not only time consuming but can cause discomfort and pain to the patient.
Plastic staples can be made bio-absorbable and do not affect medical imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging, computer tomography scanning, and ultrasound detection. Typically plastic staples are resilient and do not possess the rigidity necessary to penetrate tissue to be joined.
Accordingly, there is a need for stapling systems and methods for joining tissue with plastic staples that penetrate tissue with the plastic staples.